Has John Hynes improved?

Deep Blue Metallic

Bo knows hockey.
Mar 5, 2021
5,041
6,264
He's been fired twice in recent years, by NJD and then the Predators. See these search results for a sample of what his adoring HFB fans thought of his coaching ability.

At the quarter-pole of the season his Wild team has been surprisingly successful, trailing only the Jets in point percentage league-wide. He's certainly a Jack Adams candidate at this point.

One could argue that Hynes is merely the beneficiary of great goaltending from Gustavsson and a Hart-level performance from Kaprizov. Otoh he has this team near the very top of the league, when last season's quite similar roster missed the playoffs. If the coach is the scapegoat when a team disappoints, then he gets credit when they exceed expectations; that's just the way it works.

So, has Hynes finally found his stride as an NHL coach or will we see the Wild slide back to mediocrity with him at the helm?
 

JianYang

Registered User
Sep 29, 2017
19,541
18,938
Coaches are tough to Guage especially for fans as we can't see the day to day dynamics.

At the end of the day, fans will have a certain win loss expectation for a season, and if the team meets or succeeds that, then the coach who happens to be behind the bench for it is deemed to be good, and vice versa.

You can look around the league and see other examples of coaches who were deemed idiots at one point that are highly acclaimed now, and the opposite holds true as well.

Does this mean a certain coach is becoming significantly smarter or dumber overnight? Unlikely. The truth is probably that it has more to do with being at the right place at the right time.
 

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